I've been sitting on this recipe for about a month and am excited to share it today. I shared a teaser pic on Facebook and my goodness, I had no idea how excited you would all get over blueberries....ok, who am I kidding, it's the fact it is ice cream, let's be real.

I love it when I can take 2 of my favorite cream cheese flavors on this blog and combine them into ICE CREAM. That is just what I did with today's recipe. This recipe was inspired after my recent Strawberry Cream Cheese recipe and my original Blueberry Cream Cheese recipe. I combined both of those to create not just a blueberry ice cream, but a blueberry cheesecake ice cream. Oh my goodness, one word....delicious. The yogurt and lemon juice help to give it extra tang and body, so that it doesn't just taste like frozen blueberries. Now, I didn't use strawberries in this recipe...that wasn't the inspirational part from that cream cheese...it was the yogurt! Yogurt flat out gives such amazing body and tang to everything. And remember, it was the one of the magic ingredients in the Cheesy Mexican Tortilla Bake. However, several had trouble finding "plain" yogurt, but guess what, this one you can use sweetened or vanilla or even plain and should be totally fine.

By the way, holy moly guys...I almost wished I had saved that Cheesy Mexican Tortilla Bake for my cookbook!! I guess I still possibly could put it in there since I'm putting some of the most popular, hmmm, we will see. I knew it was delicious, but the response has been phenomenal and more than I expected. Could it possibly surpass the Garlic Alfredo #1 spot for all of these years?! Hahahahaha. It has been made easily by over a hundred of you and it's been a joy to read all of the wonderful comments on that post saying your non-vegan husbands and non-vegan kids/teenagers are scarfing it down. Soooo, if you haven't made it yet, DO IT.

BLUEBERRY AND GRAPE VEGAN ICE CREAM

Back to this Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream.

A little surprising ingredient that you'll notice above...to further amp up the natural sweetness and flavor of the ice cream, I added black grapes! The black grapes give an additional boost of color as well. I felt the blueberries alone made it too light of a color that I wanted. It was like gray, lol. But when I added the black grapes, it gave it a beautiful warm lavender color and I thought it was gorgeous and natural. It gets even more purple-rich after it freezes.

So, what do we need? Easy and simple ingredients using whole foods and unrefined sugars:

cashews

dairy-free yogurt

plant-based milk

lemon juice

maple syrup

blueberries

black grapes

vanilla extract

To make this Vegan Blueberry Ice cream, you just need a blender and about 10 minutes.

Add your cashews, yogurt, non-dairy milk, lemon juice, maple syrup, blueberries, black grapes, vanilla and optional coconut sugar and salt to a blender, like a Vitamix. You will need to soak your cashews overnight if you don't have a high-powered blender. Blend everything until smooth and then pour it into a container and freeze it.

How easy is that? No churn so no worrying if you don't have an ice cream maker!

I hope you all really love this Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream! To say my hubby and daughter loved this would be the understatement of the year!

Here's a video to get your tastebuds ready!

Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Yields 3 heaping cups (about 6 servings)

A delicious summery vegan dairy-free ice cream made from mostly fruit and natural unrefined sugar! Fresh blueberries and black grapes give natural sweetness and color while the cashews and non-dairy milk make it creamy. This is perfect for summer and a pretty darn healthy ice cream too!

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Ingredients

1 cup (150g) raw, unsalted cashews

1/2 cup (120g) vanilla dairy-free yogurt (Soy or coconut will work)

2 tablespoons (30g) lemon juice (use 3 for a more tart flavor)

1 cup (150g) blueberries

1/4 cup (80g) pure maple syrup or agave

1 teaspoon (5g) vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (If you are watching your sodium intake, you can omit this. I just like how salt enhances ice cream, but it's still yummy without it)